I can't seem to get back to my old household

[WendyFruitcake]

So, I'm fairly new to the game and I might just be overlooking a very obvious FAQ or tutorial on this issue, but:
I have had my first family pretty nicely settled in. Then I felt like making a new character and moved them into a new household.
At some point I wanted to go back and play my old family, but when I click on that old household it asks me what character of the original family I want to play with, and then  sends me back to the new house with only one of the old characters.
Does this mean my old household is lost, and I can only play the old characters in the new house now? Because that would be so immensely ridiculous. Who would program a game that way...

I hope somebody here can Sherlock me back to my old house (which was kinda cool and valuable and big, so it'd be nice).

Thanks!

[TheGoat]

A few questions:

1. Did you put both of these families in the same save file? That is, when you created a new family, did you go back to the main menu and start a new game (using the little plus-sign in the top right)? If you did, your old family will be in another save file somewhere.

2. Was there any overlap between sims? Did you move some sims out of your old house into your new one?

3. How long were you playing the new family? (The game might have moved the old one out.)

goat

[ClayMask]

Is the game telling you that some of the household members are not at home right now, and asking you if you want to play with them right now or the ones at home?

Missing Families?

Click Manage Households (up in the right corner of the map screen -



to look at your My Household tab, which should automatically be selected, to see what families are in-game and what world they are in. Select them to play.

Manage Households - My Households tab:

[Dellena]

To change which household you are playing in the same save file, you need to go through Manage World.  Did you do that?

[WendyFruitcake]

A few questions:

1. Did you put both of these families in the same save file? That is, when you created a new family, did you go back to the main menu and start a new game (using the little plus-sign in the top right)? If you did, your old family will be in another save file somewhere.

I am honestly not sure... How do I determine which save file they go in? When I decided to make a new household/character I was in the main menu/manage world, I clicked on an open slot and that lead me to the character creation window. When I finished creating the character, I was on the new slot and started building a new house. I then saved and exited when I was finished playing, just as I did with the old household.

2. Was there any overlap between sims? Did you move some sims out of your old house into your new one?

No overlaps, I didn't move any of the old sims out of the old house.

3. How long were you playing the new family? (The game might have moved the old one out.)

goat

I'm not sure, maybe two hours or so. Not a lot more I reckon.

Is the game telling you that some of the household members are not at home right now, and asking you if you want to play with them right now or the ones at home?

No, it's not giving me any messages like this. When I click on the old household it used to just start playing, now it asks me to pick one of the characters who are all placed at that house. But when I pick one it takes the character and wants me to play them at the new lot. Which is not what I want, because the new lot is meant for the new character.

To change which household you are playing in the same save file, you need to go through Manage World.  Did you do that?

Again, I'm clueless about this save file to be perfectly honest with you guys. I did go through Manage World though. Does it make a difference that I one household is on a different map than the other? And if so, why does that interfere with playing the old house on the second map? I just don't get it.


Sorry if I'm a bit helpless here, I've only had the game for a few weeks and have been excessively playing my first family through 3 generations; never had to actively think about how and where I'm saving my game. I will go and try it out again in a bit and see if I have more luck.

Thanks for giving me a hand y'all!

[Joria]

Did you just save, or use "Save As"?  "Save As" gives you a new file with the name of the family.

[WendyFruitcake]

No, I usually just go for 'Save and Exit' 

[Dellena]

If it's asking which sim you want to play with at the old lot, it generally means that some of the sims aren't on the home lot.  You may have picked a sim which was not on the home lot and it chose to bring it to your most recent lot.  Did you see the rest of the family at the bottom but grayed out?  Or was the rest of the family totally missing?

[WendyFruitcake]

So, I have tried it again a few times, until at some point I was able to get back into the household. One of my characters has passed away in the meantime and left no urn behind, and the children have all grown up. And the weirdest thing was, the remaining people of the household just stood outside of the lot, in two rows, just waiting. It was a bit odd!

It seems like they only ask you to pick a sim for your lot when they're indeed somewhere else, most probably when they're at work. Whenever I play one household, the other one seems to progress without me. I'd like to change the settings of this though, I find it rather annoying. I'd like to still keep control over the process of my sims....very strange.

Thanks everyone for helping me out!